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Holiday World (HW) Discussion Thread


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Man, I hope this works for them. We have still yet to see the actual trains that will be going on the track. The only way I was able to ride Voyage in the back was to grab hold of the bar and sit forward. If the shakiness is not improved tremendously, this could be quite the uncomfortable experience.

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The Voyage, Holiday World Splashin’ Safari’s top-rated wooden roller coaster, should feel even faster and smoother next year, thanks to a half-million-dollar investment in new trains with wheels that will steer through the turns, says Will Koch, president of the theme park and water park in Santa Claus, Ind.

 

The park will spend $540,000 to replace three 28-seat cars with two new 28-seat cars on the ride Amusement Today has rated the world’s number one wooden coaster for three successive years. The third train turned out to offer only marginal improvement in operating capacity, which Koch expects to see offset by faster loading and unloading with the new cars.

 

The biggest difference, however, should be in the ride. The new cars’ wheels come engineered to steer through curves, creating a smoother ride with less wear to the track than the original fixed wheels, said Koch. And more ergonomically designs will feature a new seat suspension system and padded seats to accommodate wider and taller riders.

 

At this point, the coaster provides a record 24.2 seconds of gravity-defying “air time” over its 1.2-mile course, said Koch. The ride includes five underground tunnels (some are double, creating eight “underground moments”), a series of dramatic drops (including a 66-degree angle of descent on the first drop), three 90-degree banked turns, and multiple track crossovers.

 

“Since the trains will ‘track’ better, riders will experience a much smoother Voyage,” said Koch. “That also means there will be less ‘rolling friction,’ so the ride will quite possibly be even faster (than now) when it reopens in May.”

 

Workers are assembling the new Timberliner trains in Indianapolis for The Gravity Group, a Cincinnati company that designed the new trains with The Voyage in mind. The old trains, which are in good condition, will go to another park’s roller coaster.

Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari are closed for the season following a record attendance year, said Koch. Holiday World will open for the 2010 season on May 1, two weeks before Splashin’ Safari, the water park, opens May 14 with the premiere of Wildebeest, billed as the world’s longest water coaster.

 

For more on the park, visit www.holidayworld.com online or call 1-877-Go-Family.

 

By Roger McBain

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Hmmm.. interesting design- the whole lead car is cantilevered. There's no zero car like the Millennium Flyers. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first coaster train to feature a cantilevered lead car.

 

Or, the renderer was too lazy and just cut and paste...

 

I noticed that too. I'm pretty sure that it's just an error in the computer rendering. Otherwise, the front car would tilt forward and scrape along the track, which would definitely add to the thrill factor in a dying/severe injury sort of way. Either that, or there's a really strong beam underneath the car holding up the front of it.

 

I think the PTC cars may look better, but these cars look like they'll be very comfortable. It'll also be interesting to see a 14 car train. I wish I could get out to Holiday World and ride this thing!

 

My bet is that its done like B&M Floorless trains. The first and second car can only roll in relation to each other, and all the other cars in the train can pitch, yaw, and and roll in relation to each other. So the first car effectively becomes the zero car. This is the same thing that is done with a zero car on Flyers and most B&M trains, but they just plopped a pair of seats on the zero car in this case.

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I live about 4 hrs from HW, and I rode the Voyage a lot this year (with too many rerides to count). To me, it had a couple rough spots, but overall it wasn't rough - instead I'd call it intense. It's also quite a long ride, so you endure Gs for longer than on many rides.

 

There are few parks, if any, that maintain their coasters as well as HW, and I can list off many, many rougher rides that aren't nearly as much fun, and some are steel! If it's not crowded, I'll camp out on the Voyage for about 10 rides before needing a drink break (at the convenient free soda fountain across from the station).

 

A smoother ride and the possibility of an even faster ride both sound great to me, though, and probably to HW maintenance.

 

Anyway, everyone's got a different opinion, and rides feel different to different people, but it's my favorite wood coaster and I can't wait to experience the new trains. -Mike

Edited by Voyager
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One thing about only having two trains. What happens when one of the trains needs some kind of extensive maintenance that can't be done overnight? Voyage operates with one train, that's what. Just because you get a 3rd train doesn't necessarily mean you have to operate with three trains. You can just rotate the 3rd train in occasionally to give another one a "break." Hopefully that decision doesn't come back to bite them in the butts.

 

Either way, I can't wait to try these trains out. The "roughness" of Voyage didn't really bother me in 2007 or 2009, but from a GP and track maintenance standpoint, this was a solid move by HW.

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Hmmm.. interesting design- the whole lead car is cantilevered. There's no zero car like the Millennium Flyers. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first coaster train to feature a cantilevered lead car.

 

Or, the renderer was too lazy and just cut and paste...

 

I noticed that too. I'm pretty sure that it's just an error in the computer rendering. Otherwise, the front car would tilt forward and scrape along the track, which would definitely add to the thrill factor in a dying/severe injury sort of way. Either that, or there's a really strong beam underneath the car holding up the front of it.

 

I think the PTC cars may look better, but these cars look like they'll be very comfortable. It'll also be interesting to see a 14 car train. I wish I could get out to Holiday World and ride this thing!

 

My bet is that its done like B&M Floorless trains. The first and second car can only roll in relation to each other, and all the other cars in the train can pitch, yaw, and and roll in relation to each other. So the first car effectively becomes the zero car. This is the same thing that is done with a zero car on Flyers and most B&M trains, but they just plopped a pair of seats on the zero car in this case.

 

I didn't even think about how B&M floorless coasters have no zero car. That would make sense. However, I still think there may be a set of wheels missing from the rendering. That front car just looks really weird with so much of it sticking out in front of the wheels.

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^ I'm pretty sure the wide flat metal piece on the first car in that rendering is where the zero car goes, watch the video of the test train on raven, for instance

 

Edit:

 

Note the chassis-less car in the very front

 

Yeah, that's what I'm betting too.

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This is great news! Definitely my favorite 2010 announcement so far (but of course, that was to be expected from me, right? )

 

With single-bench cars and 28 riders/train, I wonder if these trains will be the longest on a wooden coaster.

 

Also, those of you with concerns over the park just purchasing two trains...The Voyage hardly ever runs all three of its trains at the same time, anyway. Except for a few Saturdays in the months of July and August, the coaster rarely uses its third train.

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Right now it looks like some weird claustrophic steampunk machine
- Wes

 

(Chuckles) Wes, you just made my day. Thanks!

 

The new trains are cool and I'm sure they'll improve the ride, but Elyssa has point about the metal bars. Also, when I picture Voyage, the current PTCs come to mind. The new trains make it "feel" like a different coaster, or it leaves a different impression. Granted, this may be no different from going from older boxy style trains to Millenium Flyers on other coasters, but I just notice a different impression.

 

Even so, improvement is still improvement and 2 treats for next year is even better. Thank you Holiday World!

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^ Check what Guy quoted very carefully.

 

 

Haven't been on Voyage, but this can only be a good thing for it right? I can't wait until I can finally get my butt back to Holiday World after visiting back in 2003.

 

Derp i'll leave it for hilarity

 

And yeah, i havent been there myself since voyage opened, so now i have 3 rides to go back for

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Meh, I could take it or leave it. Obviously I have yet to experience a Timberliner, but I'm guessing that they'll be pretty similar to Millennium Flyers, which I found to be pretty much about the same as PTCs in terms of ride quality and tracking.

 

Also, I LOVE how the PTCs look...classy and elegant, like a 50's American Chevy. I have a feeling the new, streamlined Toyota-esque Timberliners won't give me that same feeling.

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^ Everyone is yet to experience a Timberliner. That's why I think GG is really sticking their neck out by choosing Voyage for the first application. If the ride actually becomes smoother it's a win for them, but if the ride doesn't greatly improve, it could end up costing them quite a bit of money.

 

Also if you like a classy/classic look, the Millennium Flyers are what you're looking for. They're modeled after the Prior and Church Century Flyers used in the 1920's aka the Golden Age of Coasters.

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